Sydney spent his time playing all the real-time strategy games that he could get his hands on. While in the middle of one of the biggest games of his life the world seemed to come to an end. Waking up in a strange world as something called a Dungeon Core with more than a few things around him that would be happy to kill him, he begins work on building his defenses while learning about the world. Luckily for him, his new form's abilities happens to be exactly like the strategy games he loved back on Earth. He was a pro then, he would be a pro again.
Mistakes: Any mistakes I found are listed on Goodreads. The author seems to have no actual knowledge about the technology that is introduced to a world of magic.
Plot: A gamer becomes a dungeon core. The problem is that we don't really get any dungeon building. This made for a boring story. I skipped entire pages towards the end. Why you might ask, the combat was simplistic and didn't draw me in.
Characters: The MC was not interesting. He is supposed to have knowledge of gunpowder and cannons, rifles, and pistols. He shows none, just pulls the technology out of his butt because the author thinks it would be cool to have it. Why even bother having levels? It made no sense. This is a case of a poorly executed book trying to cash in on litrpg.
1/10 This could have been something special if some research had been done and a proper foundation laid. As is it falls flat.
The RTS genre of games may not lend itself to being used as a basis for literature as well as RPG genre does. That is the only reason I can see why I enjoyed this novel a bit less than many other LitRPG novels I have read since discovering the genre. The plot and characters are interesting enough to hold my attention and they both develop in a logically consistent fashion, but . . . there is some element which is missing, or mishandled, that has lessened my enjoyment of this book and the RTS factor seems the most likely culprit.
This is a LitRPG novel, but it may be of interest to fans of the broader Fantasy genre and may I regret those who enjoy playing RPG and RTS games as well.
This looked like the author (Andrew Peed) saw his brother's (Matthew Peed, I assume they are brothers) Dungeon books sell so well, so he thought he would write his own, and asked his Bro to co-author so he can get into an already made market.
Well it worked, I would have never picked this up without Matthew Peed's name on it, and now that I have, I will never read anything by Andrew Peed again.
I got five chapters in and can't continue. This really isn't for me. I hate "real time strategy games", and I don't want to read a story where the author is using a dungeon core to be some real time strategy engine.
I have too much to read to force myself through this crap.
That said, here are the issues. There is no purpose given for the dungeon making the entire front half of the book boring and pointless. The random nature of summoning removed any semblance of strategy. The constant addition of characters, none of which you are in any way attached to, makes them all bland and forgettable. The core has a weak personality and at no time does it feel that he is capable or in control of the situation. This was an idea that was poorly planned and badly written.
Last Battle is unsatisfying conclusion. First Scene MC appear as Starcraft-esque gamer tactician. Then it spend two chapter of "plan" of using gunpowder. What happen on last battle ? Gunpowder used only to break wall and gate, only five gunner participate in battle, MC didn't prepared to deal with undead reinforcements, and it solved with Duel. what about MC ability as tactician ? what his plan ? Why not make MC MOBA player or fighting game pro if you not gonna use any tactic ?
Premise was refreshing, the rts like aspects were a nice change of pace. It reads like you would expect a dungeon core to read but the nuances were well done.
Not a bad book, but there are far better offerings in this subgenre. I like the living dungeon style, but I didn't really connect with the main character. Probably just avoid.